B2B Integration And The Supply Chain

Just how important is it for companies to invest in B2B integration technologies for their supply chain process? Quite important, new research shows.

A recent study from OpenText — in collaboration with IDC —  shows there to be a direct link between companies adding B2B integration technology and supply chain performance.

“Companies understand that to serve [a] customer efficiently, exchanging information across the supply chain is key,” stated a research report from OpenText, which indicates that companies must learn how to adapt new technologies as they enter the market. This starts with the manufacturing process.

“To manage more complex information processes, manufacturers will need to adopt technologies that collaboratively support rather than inhibit the flow of information across the supply chain.”

So what did the stats have to say on this subject? Results from OpenText’s research indicate the following:

• 70 percent: The percentage of companies that realize there is no space for informal, unstructured information exchange processes.
• 50 percent: The percentage of companies that can be defined as “high adopters” of electronic information exchange processes, which is a much lower penetration than is typically expected.
• 40 percent: The percentage of companies that regard competing IT projects such as ERP to be the key barrier to adopting B2B integration processes.
• 40 percent: The percentage of companies in the next three years that plan to implement technologies to support collaborative, shared and synchronous execution of projects.

When it comes to supply chain management, the research indicates that 51 percent of high tech companies can process an invoice in under on hour, and 84 precent of CPG companies have an average customer delivery time of less than seven days. That same research indicates that 97 percent of CPG companies have an average time to market in less than 120 days. When it comes to specifically B2B, here’s what the research shows:

• 79 percent: The percentage of high tech companies that exchange B2B transactions electronically.
• 58 percent: The percentage of high tech companies that said B2B adoption had reduced their procurement costs.
• 42 percent: The percentage of CPG companies that trade electronically with less than 25 percent of their trading partners.
• 49 percent: The percentage of companies that said their customers are driving new B2B projects

Overall, the IDC research shows that an increased adoption of B2B integration technologies is said to: produce faster invoice processing time by 156 percent; allow companies to be more responsive to unforeseen events by 89 percent; improves customer order delivery time by 48 percent; produces a 35 percent increase in inventory return time; reduces in cash to cash cycle time by 22 percent; improves successful product launches by 16 percent and improves perfect order rates by 3 percent.

In terms of the automotive industry, a recent news release from Axway shows how automotive OEMs and suppliers are able to modernize B2B integration through collaboration with supply chain partners. Axway, a leader in data production, recently announced an advanced B2B gateway solution for the automotive industry that “enables automotive OEMs and suppliers to cost-effectively govern the flow of data between suppliers, customers, financial institutions and regulatory bodies, regardless of the complexity or volume of B2B transactions,” according to the company.

This introduction into the industry allows organizations to move forward in the digital era by taking advantage of “new compliance, interoperability, business continuity and auditing capabilities to govern the flow of data between business partners in a reliable, transparent and secure manner, across both cloud and mobile environments.”

Managing data in a highly-connected, technologically-advanced world has also shifted the landscape in how supply chains are managed and how business and organizations interact with each other.

“With the proliferation of the Internet of Things, the automotive industry is manufacturing highly connected vehicles while also having to determine how to manage the explosion of data this new landscape has created,” said Dean Hidalgo, executive vice president of global marketing at Axway.